The US aggression against Venezuela as a diagnostic tool

The Neocons never cease to amaze me and their latest stunt with Venezuela falls into this bizarre category of events which are both absolutely unthinkable and simultaneously absolutely predictable. This apparent logical contradiction is the direct result of a worldview and mindset which is, I believe, unique to the Neocons: a mix of imperial hubris and infinite arrogance, a complete lack of decency, a total contempt for the rest of mankind, crass ignorance, a narcissist/sociopath’s inability to have any kind of empathy or imagine another guy’s reaction and, finally, last but most certainly not least, crass stupidity. There is so much which can be said about the latest US aggression on Venezuela that entire books could be (and will be) written about this, but I want to begin by look at a few specific but nonetheless very symptomatic aspects:

Remember the almost universal reaction of horror when Bolton was appointed as National Security Advisor? Well, apparently, either the Neocons completely missed that, which I doubt, or they did what they always do and decided to double-down by retrieving Elliott Abrams from storage and appointing him US Special Envoy to Venezuela. I mean, yes, of course, the Neocons are stupid and sociopathic enough not to ever care about others, but in this case I think that we are dealing with a “Skripal tactic”: do something so ridiculously stupid and offensive that it places all your vassals before a stark choice: either submit and pretend like you did not notice or, alternatively, dare to say something and face with wrath of Uncle Shmuel (the Neocon’s version of Uncle Sam). And it worked, in the name of “solidarity” or whatever else, the most faithful lackeys of the Empire immediate fell in line behind the latest US aggression against a sovereign nation in spite of the self-evident fact that this aggression violates every letter of the most sacred principles of international law. This is exactly the same tactic as when they make you clean toilets with a toothbrush or do push-ups in the mud during basic training: not only to condition you to total obedience, but to make you publicly give up any semblance of dignity.

MAGA? really?

This is not just a case of history repeating itself like a farce, however. It is hard to overstate how totally offensive a character like Elliott Abrams is for every Latin American who remembers the bloody US debacle in Nicaragua. US vassals now have to give up any type of pretend-dignity in front of their own people and act as if Abrams was a respectable and sane human being.

I believe that this kind of “obedience conditioning by means of humiliation” is not just a case of the Neocons being idiots, but a deliberate tactic which will, of course, backfire and end up hurting US puppets worldwide (just like the pro-US Russian “liberal” opposition was eviscerated as a result of being associated by the Russian public opinion with the US policies against Russia, especially in the Ukraine).

Finally, these appointments also show that the senior-Neocons are frightened and paranoid as there are still plenty of very sharp junior-Neocon folks to chose from in the USA, yet they felt the need to get Abrams from conservation and place him in a key position in spite of the strong smell of naphthalene emanating from him. This reminds me of the gerontocrats of the Soviet Politburo in the worst stagnation years who had to appoint the likes of Chernenko to top positions.

The one thing the Mr MAGA’s administration has in common with the late Brezhevian Politburo is its total inability to get anything done. My wife refers to the folks in the White House (since Dubya came to power) as the “gang that couldn’t shoot straight” and she is right (she always is!): they just can’t really get anything done anymore – all their half-assed pseudo-successes are inevitably followed by embarrassing failures.

Now we have all seen the latest antic from Bolton: showing up with a yellow pad with “5,000 troops to Colombia” written on it. Again, this might be a case of Bolton being senile or not giving a damn, but I doubt it. I think that this is just another oh-so-subtle way to threaten Venezuela with a US-led invasion. And, really, why not?

If the Empire thinks it has the authority and power to decide who the President of Venezuela should be, it has to logically back up this stance with a threat, especially since there is no US authority, moral or otherwise, left.

The obvious question here is how this threat will be received in Venezuela and that largely depends on how credible that threat is. Now, “5,000 troops” could mean anything, ranging from a infantry brigade combat team to the typical US mix of as many putatively “special” forces as possible (to make every service happy and give everybody a piece of the expected (but never achieved) “victory pie” – many careers in the US depend on that kind of stuff). At this point in time, I rather not speculate and get technical about how such a force could be structured. Let’s just assume that it will be an overall credible and well-packaged force and try to speculate how the Venezuelans could react to it.

The state of the Venezuelan military

Here I am particularly lucky as I have a close and trusted Latin American friend who is now a retired Lt-Colonel who spent many months in Venezuela working with the Venezuelan military in a capacity which I cannot disclose, but which gave him quasi-total access to every unit and military facility in the country and who, just a couple of years ago, shared with me his impression of the Venezuelan military. Here is what he told me:

A military, any military, is always the product of the society which produces it and this is also true of Venezuela. It would be silly to admit that the Venezuelan economy is a total mess while expecting the Venezuelan armed forces to be a shining example of professionalism, honesty and patriotism. The sad reality is very different.

For one thing, much of the Venezuelan military is hopelessly corrupt, as is the rest of society. In a country whose economy is imploding, this is hardly surprising. Furthermore, for years both Chavez and Maduro have fought an uphill battle to remove as many potential traitors and class enemies (in a Marxist sense of the word) from the Venezuelan military and replace them with “socially close” (a Bolshevik concept) elements from the poorer sections of society. Truth be told, this was a partially successful strategy as seen by the fact that during this latest coup attempt the Venezuelan military overwhelmingly supported the Venezuelan Constitution and the legitimacy of Maduro. And yet that kind of loyalty often comes at the costs of professionalism and at the risk of corruption as seen by the case of the Venezuelan military attache to the USA who clearly was a US agent. I am afraid that the current situation in Venezuela might be similar to what it was in Syria in the very early stages of the AngloZionist war against this country when scores of top officials of the Syrian government proved to be traitors and/or US agents. In Syria the government eventually re-took control of the situation, but only with a great deal of help from Iran and Russia and after almost being toppled by the US-run Takfiri forces.

The good news here, according to my friend, is that the Venezuelan special forces (army special forces, jungle infantry troops, “Caribe” counter insurgency units, airborne units, etc) are in a much better shape and that they could form the core of a resistance force to the invasion, not unlike what the Republican Guard eventually did in Iraq. But the biggest difference with Iraq is that in Venezuela the majority of the people are still backing Maduro and that any invasion force should expect to meet a lot of resistance of the type which the US encountered in Iraq after the invasion of the country. Also, there was a fragile truce of sorts between Hugo Chavez and various Left-wing guerillas who agreed to stop their military operations, but who also kept all their weapons “just in case”. This “case” has now happened and we can expect that any US invasion will trigger an immediate re-emergence of a Left-wing guerilla force which, combined with popular support and the key role of a core of patriotic Venezuelan special forces could form a very dangerous combination, especially in the mid to long term.

Keep in mind that corrupt officers don’t like combat and that while they might aid a US invasion force, they will only do so as long as things seem to go the easy way, but as soon as things go south (which is what always happens to US invasion forces) they will run as fast as they can. So while the endemic corruption now will be a problem for the Maduro government, it will become a problem for the US as soon the legitimate government is toppled.

Comparisons are necessarily tricky and crude, but with this caveat in mind, don’t think “Syria” but rather think “Iraq” when considering the possible outcomes of a US invasion.

The state of the Venezuelan people

This is really crucial. Hugo Chavez’ reforms alienated a lot of Venezuelans, especially those who made their fortunes by servicing US interests and who became your typical Latin American version of a comprador class. Much of the middle-class also got hurt and are angry. However, these same reforms also empowered huge numbers of destitute and poor Venezuelans who, for the first time, felt that the government stood for their interests and who remember what it was like to live in abject poverty under a US-backed regime. These folks probably have no illusion about what the toppling of this government would mean for them and they are likely to fight hard, if not necessarily competently, to keep the little rights and means they acquired during the Chavez years. There is even what is sometimes referred to “Chavistas without Chavez” which some describe as potential back-stabbing traitors while other see them as more pragmatic, less ideological, faction of Chavez supporters who decry Chavez’ mistakes but don’t want their country to turn into a Colombia-style US colony. Whatever may be the case, Hugo Chavez’ pro-popular policies left a very profound mark on the country and you can expect that a lot of Venezuelans will take up arms and resist any US/Colombian invasion.

Would *you* trust that face?

Here I think we can all express our heartfelt gratitude to Mr MAGA whose appointment of Elliott “Iran-Contra” Abrams has done more than any government sponsored propaganda to clearly and bluntly explain to the Venezuelan people who is doing what to them and why.

Seriously, Ron Paul or Tulsi Gabbard speaking of democracy is one thing, but having gangsters and psychopathic thugs like Pompeo, Bolton or Abrams in charge really sends a message and that message is that we are dealing with a banal case of highway robbery triggered by two very crude considerations:

First, to re-take control of Venezuela’s immense natural resources.

Second, to prove to the world that Uncle Shmuel can still, quote, “pick up some small crappy little country and throw it against the wall, just to show the world we mean business“, unquote.

The obvious problem is that 1) nobody takes the US seriously because 2) the US has not been capable of defeating any country capable of resistance since many decades already. The various US special forces, which would typically spearhead any invasion, have an especially appalling record of abject failures every time they stop posing for cameras and have to engage in real combat. I assure you that nobody in the Venezuelan military cares about movies like “Rambo” or “Delta Force” while they carefully studied US FUBARs in Somalia, Grenada, Iran and elsewhere. You can also bet that the Cubans, who have had many years of experience dealing with the (very competent) South African special forces in Angola and elsewhere will share their experience with their Venezuelan colleagues.

Last but not least, there are a lot of weapons in circulation in Venezuela and which the various popular militias and National Guard would be more than happy to further distribute to the local population if any invasion appears to be successful.

The State of the Empire and its puppet-President Macrobama

Well, here the famous “insanity is repeating the same thing over and over again expecting different results” is the best possible description of US actions. Just look at this sequence:

No western politician in office dares to say a single word about this massive full-spectrum violation of all the most sacred principles of international law. But then, international law has been dead since the US/NATO war on the Serbian people, so this is hardly “news”…

Does all this not look boringly familiar?

Does this bizarre mix of Neocons, gerontocrats and deepstaters really, sincerely, believe that this time around they will “win” (however you define that)?!

More relevantly – has this recipe ever worked in the past? I would say that if we accept, for argument’s sake, that the goal is to “restore democracy” then obviously “no”. But if the goal is to wreck a country, then it has worked, quite a few times indeed.

Next, a few misplaced hopes

I am getting a lot of emails suggesting that Russia might do in Venezuela what she did in Syria. Let me immediately tell you that this is not going to happen. Yes, there are a lot of Russians in Venezuela, but the “Russians are not coming”. For one thing, I will never cease to repeat that the Russian intervention in Syria was a very small one, and that even if this small force proved formidable, it was really acting primarily as a force multiplier for the Iranians, Hezbollah and the Syrian government forces. And yet, even the deployment of this very small force necessitated a huge logistics effort from Russia whose military (being a purely defensive one) is simply not structured for long-distance power projection. Syria is about 1000km from Russia. Venezuela is about 10 times (!) further. Yes, I know,a few Tu-160 visited the country twice now and there are Russian advisors in the country and the Venezuelans have a few pretty good Russian weapons systems. But here, again, this is a game of numbers. Limited numbers of Russian-made combat aircraft (fixed and rotary wing), air defense missiles or even large numbers of advanced MANPADs or assault rifles won’t do the trick against a determined US-Colombian invasion. Finally, there is no Venezuelan equivalent to Iran or Hezbollah (an outside ally and friend) which would be capable and willing to deploy real combat forces for actual, sustained combat against the invader.

Next comes terrain. Yes, much of Venezuela is difficult to access, but not for jungle-experienced forces which both the US military and the Colombians have. Furthermore, there is absolutely no need to invade the entire country to topple the legitimate government. For that all you need is to control is a few key facilities in a few key locations and you are done. For example, I don’t see the USAF or USN wasting any time in air-to-air combat against the (few) Venezuelan Sukhois – they will simply destroy them in their hangars along with their runways and air combat management radars and command posts. So the terrain will not prevent the Empire of suppressing Venezuelan air defenses and as soon as this is done, you can expect the usual mix of bomb and missile strikes which will create chaos, wreck command and control capabilities and, basically, disorganize much of the military. Finally, US forces in Colombia and USN ships off the Venezuelan coast will enjoy a safe harbor from which to launch as many strikes as they want.

Next, hopes that Russia and China will somehow resuscitate the Venezuelan economy are also ill-founded. First, neither country is interested in pouring money into a bottomless pit. It is one thing to sign contracts which are likely to eventually produce a return on investment and quite another to dump money into a bottomless pit (as the US and Europe have found out in the Ukraine). Second, the Venezuelan economy is so deeply enmeshed in the US-UK run international financial system that neither China nor Russia can do anything about it. That is not to say that US sanctions, subversion and sabotage did not play a major role in the collapse of the Venezuelan economy, they sure did, but it is equally true (at least to Russian specialists) that many of the Chavista reforms were botched, a lot of them were a case of too little too late, and that it will take years to refloat the Venezuelan economy.

Finally, we are comparing apples to oranges here: the task of the AngloZionists is to destroy the Venezuelan economy while the Chinese and Russian task would be, at least in theory, to rescue it. Destroying is so much easier than building, that the entire comparison is logically flawed and fundamentally unfair.

I really mean no offense to the supporters of Hugo Chavez and his ideals (I very much include myself in this category) but anybody who has been to, or near, Venezuela will tell you that destitute Venezuelans are not only running out of the country in large numbers, but they also contribute to destabilize the neighboring states. So we should have no Pollyannish notions about all the reports about the economic and social collapse in Venezuela as only “US propaganda”. Sadly, much of it is true even if often exaggerated, lopsided and missing all the very real successes of the Chavez reforms, hence the continuous popular support, in spite of it all, the Maduro government continues to enjoy. Still, the overall picture is very bleak and it will take Venezuela consistent and correct action to recover from the current plight.

So is there still hope? Yes, absolutely!

I recently replied the following to a friend asking me about a possible Russian intervention in Venezuela “I place my own hopes not in the Venezuelan military, or in Chinese or Russian help, but on the amazing ability of the US Americans to f*** up. At the end of the day, that is our biggest ally: the US stupidity, ignorance, arrogance and cowardice“.

Think of what currently passes as a “policy” of the USA in Venezuela as a diagnostic tool.

Not just to diagnose the moral degeneracy and mental pathology of the leaders of the AngloZionist Empire, but also to diagnose the very real state of despair and chaos of the Empire itself. Under Obama, for all his faults and weaknesses, the US succeeded in subverting a list of crucial Latin American countries (like Brazil or Argentina) but now, with Mr MAGA, it can’t even do that. The kind of antics we see from the Pompeo, Bolton & Abrams gang is amazing in its crudeness and, frankly, makes a supposed “indispensable nation” look absolutely ridiculous. These losers already had to fold several times, in spite of equally hyperbolic threats delivered with maximal gravitas (think DPRK here), and yet they still think that crude bullying methods can yield success. They can’t. Immense firepower is not a substitute for brains.

In its short and blood-soaked history, the USA has pretty much always acted like some criminal enterprise run by brutal gangsters, but in the past some of these gangsters could be extremely well educated and intelligent (think James Baker here). Today, their guns are still lying around (albeit in various states of disrepair), but they are wielded by ignorant retards. Yes, ignorant retards with guns can be very dangerous, but they can never be effective!

Conclusion

Right now the US, backed by its various colonies and vassal states, appears to be ready to deliver a death blow to Venezuela and, truth be told, they might be able to do just that. But, for whatever it is worth, my gut feeling is that they will fail again, even against the weakest countries of the Axis of Resistance. That is not to say that Venezuela is not in a heap of critical problems. But I believe that in spite of being in a critical condition, Venezuela will be able to bounce back, just like Syria did. After all, the Syrian example proves that it *is* possible to resist a superior invading force while at the same time successfully engaging in critically needed reforms. Yes, today’s Caracas is in very bad shape, but the city of Aleppo was in a much worse shape until it was liberated, and now quasi-normal life has returned to it (in sharp contrast to the US liberated devastated city of Raqqa which still lies in ruins). Yankees (to use the usual Latin-American expression) are just like their Israeli overlords: they are capable of devastating violence but they have no staying power: if things don’t go their way fast, really fast, they run and barricade themselves somewhere faraway from danger. In our case, they might even do what they did in Iraq and Afghanistan: build obscenely huge embassies, create a special zone around them, and sit tight while the country is engulfed in a bloody civil war. This way, they can provide CNN & Co. with footage of a “peaceful neighborhood” while still claiming that the Stars and Stripes are still proudly flying high over the enemy’s capital and that “these colors don’t run”. This would be a disastrous outcome for the Venezuelan nation and this is why we all have to try to prevent this, by speaking out before the US further wrecks yet another country.

Hopefully the memory of past completely failed, humiliating and bloody invasions will convince the right people at the Pentagon to do whatever it takes to prevent the US from launching yet another stupid and immoral war of choice on behalf of the Neocons.

The Saker

The Essential Saker III: Chronicling The Tragedy, Farce And Collapse of the Empire in the Era of Mr MAGA

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128 Comments

If the Maduro government arms the people massively (2 million in milicias may be braggadocio but even a lesser amount would be impressive), then this will end up being becoming a slog of a nationalistic/class war even if Gweedo-Gusano takes power in the major cities ( ports and capital). The leftist ex guerrillas much like the So Vietnamese NLF stalwarts who buried their weapons for awhile know very well how to wage a prolonged armed struggle. With Mr. death-squad Abrams in command, the level of mayhem will escalate very quickly. Mercy will hide its head in shame for there will be none shown for a long time.

And there may be other forces which may emerge yet unknown at this time. ( International brigades?)

I think Trump will now get his wall. He has destroyed Pelosi and the Democrats with this one stroke. Will the forseeable tidal waves of refugees such as would be generated by a war in Venuzuela there can no longer be any resistance by the Democrats against the border wall.

The US is preparing for war against Russia and China. It will require millions of bodies to fight. Without a border wall draft dodgers will flee south through Mexico. So the wall must be built to ensure the human capital can be harvested by conscription to throw into the global war the US plans.

If you have ever traveled to Caracas you will know that the “crooks” will be in a cauldron as they are basically surrounded by the poor. Getting to and from the airport (on the coast) can be easily blockaded for the “crooks”. The poor in no way will be with Guido who I’m sure is known to them as being an American agent. The poor are the Majority that won in Democratic Elections and this is not sitting well with the Anglo-Zionist Empire.

Venezuelan terrain is not friendly to invaders. I suspect even to try and sneak into Venezuela would be a problem because the poor are everywhere. Thus the Empire would need to resort to peaceful bombing missions.

As a Colombian who has been following very closely the Venezuelan crisis I can tell you that this gigantic mess is mainly the result of the terrible incompetence and corruption of the so called ‘revolution’. It results quite clear that Chavez came to power in Venezuela as a consequence of decades of abuse, mismanagement and corruption of the local elites that spent their time ransacking the country’s wealth with the complicity of the United States corporations, but unfortunately as we say here in Colombia, the cure turned out to be worse than the disease. There is something that historically have characterize the leftist movements in Latin America, their desire for revenge is stronger than their desire for social justice add to this their tropical interpretation of the communist doctrines and the corrupt nature of the Latino character and you have the perfect recipe for a disaster.
Most of the wealthiest Venezuelans saw the sign in the wall and fled the country in the early stages of the “revolution” with their money, many came to Colombia resulting in an additional boost to our local economy in many areas, and then the middle class people left the country and now the poorest are on the run. Maduro has managed to keep the power by bribing the military, which are the most criminal elements in the state. It’s well known fact their complicity with the Colombian drug traffickers in the border regions, which by the way in their majority are the leftist guerrillas, they are called “El cartel de los soles”, The suns cartel, because of the signs the generals used in their uniforms. The head of this cartel is Diosdado Cabello, a very dangerous man and his right hand is the head of the army Vladimir Padrino. Maduro obviously is very aware of this situation, we don’t know whether he participate of the drugs profits or not, but the fact is these guys are becoming immensely rich. I know many romantic leftist idealist in the world cannot accept this fact, but that‘s the reality, that’s the human nature unfortunately. Other way Maduro has gain the loyalty of other sectors of the armed forces, is by handing to them the population’s food supply, having the state the monopoly in the supply chain, (another marvel of the socialist system) nobody can go against this mafia and they also are getting very rich. My relatives in the border city of Cucuta told me the tragedy the Venezuelan owners of little grocery markets has to go to obtain the products, they have to deal with the military in charge of any particular item, so if you need rice you have to buy it from the “rice colonel”, if you need cooking oil then go to the “cooking oil general” and so on, the corruption is amazing. The people who are fleeing in vast numbers to Colombia tell the same story, besides they have to hide the few money they have with them to avoid be robbed by the Guardia Nacional in the border check point. In the past Christmas many Venezuelans who work in Colombia went to their homes in Venezuela to spend the festivities with their families, many told about the many Guardia’s check points along the road, stopping the busses and checking the people looking for money or valuable things. The last Colombian census stablished a Venezuelan population in Colombia nearly to one million people, but we know that there are at least two million Venezuelans in Colombia, most of them are hunger refugees. I live in a little town hidden in a wrinkle of the central Colombian Andes, more than 400 km from the Venezuelan border, recently the mayor’s office was ordered by the central government to carry out a local census of the Venezuelan population, the following day fifty Venezuelans show up at the mayor’s office, that gives you an idea of the severity of the crisis. The only beggars that we have in the streets are Venezuelans all of them asking for money to buy food. The crime is also rising in many places of Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, because of these people.
The whole Venezuelan infrastructure is falling apart, aqueducts, electric energy supply, gas supply, refineries, etc. The technicians, the people who knew how to operated it properly, left the country long ago, now that critical infrastructure is in the hands of the incompetent and corrupt military or the even worst, the ‘revolutionaries’; everything is in disarray and we the neighboring countries are paying a huge price. Most of the Colombian, Ecuadorian and Peruvian population want a rapid change in Venezuela to put and an end to that chaos; we know better than anyone how profound the crisis is and the tremendous suffering of the Venezuelan population. Those manifestation supporting Maduro are mainly military and civilian servants, many of them are force to go otherwise they can lose their jobs and the weekly supply of the little box of food that they called the CLAP.
Finally if you want to have a better understanding of this crisis you need to see in a very objective way, I know the historic responsibility the US elites has in this mess, but we should not ignore all the variables involved in this situation. Maduro has his days numbered, his against the wall is just a matter of days, his government is just a rotten house.

A violent class war with the USA, Israel and the NATO stooge vermin supporting the parasite classes in Venezuela will swiftly turn genocidal, like Iraq, Afghanistan, Gaza, Libya etc. The logic of Western economic and ecological parasitism and destruction leads, inevitably, to the mass slaughter of the ‘useless eaters’ for whom the capitalist Herrenvolk no longer have any use. They represent merely a threat of revolt and redistribution of the wealth that the parasites have stolen, at first slowly, but, in recent decades, at an accelerating pace. Stolen from the rest of humanity and the natural world, which destruction is nearly complete, this wealth is sufficient cause for the parasites to exterminate most of humanity. Piecemeal obliterations like Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Gaza, Libya etc just won’t do. I expect that bio-warfare fits the bill perfectly, and the archipelago of Pentagon bio-warfare ‘research’ establishments, set up worldwide, will probably be the source. The recent and no doubt continuing, program by the Pentagon to collect examples of DNA, blood and tissue, including neoplasms, from every identifiable human ‘population’ plus advances in recombinant DNA techniques, pretty much presages our fate, I would say.

as a matter of fact the only reason I think we have not had an organized, nationalistic, but limited third world war as yet..with the working class revolution disposed against itself on every side, unleashed to destroy itself, making the world safe for yet another capitalist re-start… is because China, Iran and Russia have not yet agreed

Catch up, grasshopper. This is the solitary objective. The ascendance of an aristocracy, this time a global one, is predicated on reducing potentially wealthy and therefore independent nations, peoples, races, to servitude by the same old means as ever before. The race conflict in the US has the same objective. What is going on across Europe – the imposition of Islam and the mixing of nations – similarly creates a fundamentally divided and easily managed population.

The game is alike to this: I can argue that since the introduction of Myxomatosis and the banning of fox hunting, a rabbit is better off in a cage. It is however, managed and fed according to the whims of the cage owner. They can be safe, fat and lazy in there, says the owner, but they will never be free and their body is mine to use as I wish.

Globalism uses the methods used throughout history – terrorism, destruction of nations, mass migration of males, operation Gladio, ‘the Russians are coming’, ‘we will bomb you into the stone age’ are the same tools used in the reformation, the last great transfer of wealth from the people to the few. These are the methods used to make the rabbit surrender its freedom. There is a point of external threat at which the lowly will climb into the cage leaving their pastures and meadows for leisure and abuse by a ruthless few. Most are already in.

Since 2008 the game de jour for an ascendant aristocracy is the capture and commoditisation of entire populations and landmasses into their portfolios. If Trump’s, Bolton’s, Pompeo’s statements have not made this patently clear re the resources in Iraq, Syria and Venezuela, what will?

A reminder of the Panama Invasion: Noriega had elite special forces that were superb jungle fighters. They were supposed to fight the invasion. They ran to Chiriqui Province on the other side of the nation while Panama City was easily taken and the major barrio destroyed by the Americans. No one was protected by indigenous military.

If your Lt. Colonel source is correct, the US will take Venezuela in 24 hours if they want to. Probably put on a show for 72 hours. Caracas will fall. The resistance will melt away. A few thousand killed (but like in Panama, the bodies will disappear.)

It’s bleak.

Russia and China could do a few more things to make any US military action extremely painful, and thus doubtful.
The loss of their investments is one thing. But the control of the oil and gas of Venezuela in the hands of the US means price control of the oil industry, and thus gas prices which are tagged to oil.

They could collapse the Russian budget if they flooded the market. Right now, Russia and OPEC are cutting production to get the price up to $60.

This is an economic war the Hegemon is operating against China and Russia. Venezuela is haplessly caught in the middle.

We’ll see if Russia and China actually come up with some tactics that could prevent the utter ruin of Venezuela and decades more of poverty. The ramifications will not just ripple to Russia and China. They will strike like a tsunami in the energy sectors.

It is a geopolitical calculation that has to be made, coordinated and executed.

President Xi’s Latin American projects will all be destroyed if Venezuela is conquered. Next stop, Nicaragua.
Then they’ll get Evo out in Bolivia and overturn Uruguay’s upstart government. After losses in part of Latin America, China will stop the projects for rail and energy. They already have huge problems in Brazil.

Making a stand in Venezuela is far from ideal. But if it can be saved, they have to try. For their own sake.

Panama hadn’t a real army, only some muscled police and special forces; plus Panama the country itself is cut in two by a kind of big Guantanamo-like US base (that is US controlled territory) going from the Pacific to the Caribbean.

The destruction of Panama was to avoid Panama regaining control of the canal zone.

Back then the USSR was in total free fall, and China not ready yet.

The special forces of Panama were US trained and equipped…

Now, look at Grenada invasion.
Yes, the US prevailed; but look at it closer: Grenada, a very tiny island, with no army, very low number of inhabitants.
The invading force was about 9.000 soldiers, several vessels, aviation, etc.
Yet, they were blocked several weeks by a bunch of people with small arms; not even soldiers but civilians with mainly military background from military service.
The resisting people have been able to take a honorable toll on the invading forces, and the fight stopped only when they ran out of bullets.

So, the situation is quite good for Venezuela; at least as good as it can be in the geographic and historic background of Latin America.
No other country, not even Cuba at the Bay of Pigs time, was in a better position to resist an invasion on a military point of view.

And if Colombia is directly involved, then the guerillas there (that have been undefeated for more than 60 years of continous fighting) will resume the fight; Colombia will be very much neutralized.

Though I largely agree with you, on this point I might have some question marks:

“The loss of their investments is one thing. But the control of the oil and gas of Venezuela in the hands of the US means price control of the oil industry, and thus gas prices which are tagged to oil.

They could collapse the Russian budget if they flooded the market. Right now, Russia and OPEC are cutting production to get the price up to $60.”

‘Oil’ is just a family name, just like ‘plastic’ (and even then, a sandwich bag and a surfboard are both made of polyethylene). Oil can be a shiny liquid, but also heavy tar. Oil in itself is close to worthless (yes, you can burn it, but you can do that too with wood) and only gets value when refining it. And before that, first you have to extract it, and those costs vary. Venezuela oil does not score too well on this.
Venezuela oil is hard to extract, of poor quality, and only a limited amount of refineries are able to handle it. And guess who are targeted by sanctions. To get an idea, read this: https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Oil-Quality-Issues-Could-Break-Venezuela.html

Now, even when the US will flood the market to hit the RF economy, this will backfire. This old strategy worked against the USSR, but not anymore against the RF as they tried some years ago after the Ukraine coup.
Even worse, if there is one economy, already struggling, that would glide into shambles with a collapsing oil price, it would be that of Saudi Arabia.

Though I highly doubt that this would be the purpose, the stupidity of the neocons have surprised me more often than expected.

Dear Rob,
I read ‘Waltzing with a Dictator’ by Raymond Bonner many years ago in which Bonner stated that Imelda Marcos did a deal with Chine in regard to buying some oil. The problem with the Chinese oil was that it was so thick that it clogged the Philippines refineries and did more harm than good. That ended that venture.

Venezuela has indeed the largest oil reserves in the world, but it’s very heavy stuff: barely liquid, it’s extracted by injecting hot steam into injection wells around the extraction wells to make it more liquid. Obviously this takes at least double the amount of drilling and it takes vast amounts of energy to inject enourmous amounts steam into the oil field. Obviously this makes the Venezuelan oil extraction process quite expensive: more expensive than Russian oil extraction. So to flood the global market with Venezuelan oil to hurt Russia (and America’s own shale-oil industry…!), the Venezuelan oil industry would have to be run at huge losses. Which oil companies would be willing to sign on to such a loosing proposition?

Then there is the refining issue: only a few refineries in the Gulf region are capable to process Venezuela’s very heavy crude. If you want to seriously increase Venezuela’s oil extraction, you’d also have to build new refinaries that can process it. Refineries (and ports and terminals for oil tankers and storage tanks, etc.) are very expensive to build and in view of the aproaching peak of global oil production there’s litle appetite in the oil industry to build new refineries that may soon prove to be superfluous. As far as I know, the youngest major oil refinery in the world is already more than two decades old (maybe the Chinese have built a few recently, due to their fast growing economy).

So to me it doesn’t sound very feasible to use Venezuelan oil to lower global oil prices just to hurt Russia’s oil sector (while producing Venezuelan oil at a huge loss, damaging America’s oil sector just as much and ruining Saudi Arabia’s economy (their costs of crude extraction and refining are still relatively low, but Saudi Arabia needs a big profit margin to pay for social programs to keep their largely unemployed population quiet…!).

If that’s the Donald’s (and Bolton’s and Pompeo’s and Abram’s) strategical plan, I’m afraid it’s just one more example of their ignorance, hubris and stupidity.

Venezuela found high quality oil in monagas in 2012, orinoco is not the only place with oil in Venezuela. This is a thing not many people knows well but i´m sure Usa knows everything about it becuase rafael ramirez “a defector” tried to hide it from Chavéz when he was the head of pdvsa.

People has to remenber that this is the country where Francisco de Miranda and Bolívar were born, Venezuela kicked spain’s ass here and in other countries as well, it was the Venezuelan milicia who did it most of the figthing in the independence’s war.

Popular areas in Caracas are impossible to take, no even the brazilian army could do anything in the favelas in rio de jaineiro and Caracas has the biggest ones in latin america. Venezuela also has a lot of rare material, coltan, gas, gold and many more in his soil, and the quality of the soil in most places is A1. We are not limited as cuba, the problem is the huge corruption and pro us elite who still has the economy control of the country.

pd: I thought maduro was slow to take actions as well and makes a lot of people upset in the process, me included but in time of a confrontation I will support this country.

Holy Smokes…to compare the Panama invasion of 1989-1990 to Venezuela in 2019 is so out of whack that it boggles the mind…Noriega was a criminal who never did a thing for the poor and the indigenous masses…while Chavez literally pulled millions out of poverty and in many cases literal starvation…these same poor now have guns and many are part of organized militias…they will butcher and eat the rich and even the semi-rich in the cities…all of which are surrounded by barrios that outnumber them 10 to one…to think that the US could invade and take over in a matter of hours is ridiculous…

Careful here – Noriega was not a criminal. He was the successor of Omar Torrijos. Torrijos was a very socialistic minded guy who managed to get POTUS Carter to sign over the Panama Canal Zone to Panamanian control. When Torrijos was assassinated by the CIA, Noriega took over as he was de-facto the “best student” of Torrijos (albeit less sophisticated), and wanted to continue to pursue the socialistic path of Torrijos. As seen in more recent years in the case of Costa Rica, he was then faced with the old US trick of drug-trafficking cartels appearing and the US then offering to take them out…then POTUS Bush used the cover of other events around the globe, to distract media attention and invaded Panama to basically tear up Carters agreement and “re-introduce democracy to Panama” to save it from Noriegas “druggie” clutches. Sure Noriga was naive in thinking he could deflect US interference by going along with the CIA drug-running – which like a scorpion then stung him…
I NEVER understood Noriega to be the “bad” person that the US media hype and propaganda made out of him (and all other sons-of-bitches they suddenly don’t like). Its a bit like saying Ho Chi Minh was a bad person. No…He was simply the friend of the CIA for one time and then when the US decided the opposite, his CIA minder was taken away and he became the target of US attacks
I remember this all so well as i was enchanted by Elizabeth Montgomery the American actress who played the role of the witch housewife in “Bewitched” – who then became an activist aiming to expose all the malevolence of Bush senior and his CIA pals…Poor Elizabeth died of cancer caused I’m sure by the trauma of visiting the victims of US aggression in Panama. She described a lot of the realities of US psychopathic behavior…and vilification of Noriega was not a topic.

Very nice summary of how it went down with Panama. It seems many dictators who were helped by the Scorpion simply did not understand how dangerous it is to put all your eggs into that one relationship.

People on this website can really learn something. Thanks for your effort.

The book “I was an economic hit-man” by John Perkins also describes the Panama situation in detail as the guy was there when it happened or just after it happened. He describes a very bleak “landscape” – very much the way the USA has “shaped” Kosovo today…
At the time of the invasion of Panama, the US Marine Corps Website (interesting site but clinical military language and glossing over the kind of details that interest the general public) claimed 1000 people killed “who were resisting the liberators” Elizabeth Montgomery went to Panama, found out the figure was closer to 2000 deaths of mostly women and children. Seems the USMC had been using it as a training course in how to garrott victims… (something they did again more recently in one of the Philippine Islands) Modern data shows more than 5000 were killed in Panama…as relatives had assumed that their folk had fled into the forest but the Americans are pretty good at filling body bags and then hiding them…
Expect more of the same behaviour if US Forces cross over from Colombia to Vez. particularly if Negroponte gets involved.
Expect in particular some aerial bombing using depleted uranium. It is said to be “better for penetrating tank armour” but is in reality DELIBERATELY used to weaken and maim the population over the long term, to make it easier for the US to have no resistance. For short term terror, expect the use of phosphor bombs on civilians…standard NATO practice from Ukraine to Syria to iraq to Yemen…

Yes The Saker website is indeed a goldmine of interesting information and i too have learnt a lot from readers comments…

Larchmonter445
I have to disagree with you. Venezuela is not Panama or Grenada. While the Venezuelan military probably would not be able to defeat a US frontal invasion, it does not mean that the US could control the country. In 2003 the US invaded Iraq, taking Baghdad. However, analysts have pointed out that the US never controlled more than 1/3 of the country, taking large casualties after the country was “invaded”. The same thing would happen in Venezuela. As I have written before, people cannot forget the pre-Chavez years, when the country was plundered. The only class of people the US can count on is the middle class, but it’s outnumbered by ordinary people. For the US to apply the divide and conquer tactic would be risky, as the bulk of the population would be against Washington. The Venezuelan military promised Washington a new Vietnam if it attacked. This would most probably happen. And international repercussions ? They would certainly follow, not that the neocons care about them. However, there is a limit to imperial greed. The US would lose the little esteem it still has, further weakening both NATO and the EU in Europe.

my opinion is that these invasions in which the ’empire has failed’ are not in fact failures..that the empire has indeed achieved its goal of maximum chaos and the quasi permanent destruction of the invaded country.

this has already been alluded to above and to me it makes perfect sense!

As well as destroying target states (as Zionazi Michael Ledeen said, Thanatopia has to ‘…throw some shitty little country against the wall..’, every few years, to show the world who is Boss)the Exceptionals also love killing defenceless civilians. Murder is their one true religion.

You just wrote down my thoughts. I have all respect for The Good Saker and his top contributors here, such as Larchmonter, Auslander et al. I have learned so much from them. And I feel it’s only natural that… they really do NOT know Latin America deeply. Most analyst of high caliber in Alt Media don’t. Yeah, they write good, structured, informed pieces. And yet they are all superficial. Like things you learn on university. They do not know some of the deep nuances, details, forces moving Latin Americans. They cannot know unless they lived here many years.

For example, they should begin by asking themselves why the whole continent is NOT an American colony. Yeah, some small countries like Panama are. But these are really few. Even in an invaded, broken, abused country like Honduras, most of the people display an antagonistic behaviour towards gringos. Costa Rica looks like a U.S. colony as well, but a few years back signed a strategic commercial agreement with China. Take El Salvador, where left wing guerrilla FMLN several times defeated U.S. special forces operating there. Nicaragua? I do not need to tell you how they feel about the U.S. there.

How about larger countries? Look at México, fiercely nationalistic, gringos are generally disliked there beyond their role as tourists. Brazilian military is not really all that friendly to U.S. military after the latter looked down upon them as WWII comrades, a feeling that endures to this day. Argentinians are generally not fans of them either. Neither are Ecuadorans, Peruvians, Paraguayans, Uruguayans or Bolivians. And even in friendlier countries for the U.S. like Colombia or Chile, large segments of population are mistrustful of them. Which is only natural, of course. But it shows these people are not submissive. They have a complex social memory that does not forget. This is why Condor 2.0 is a great strategic mistake. It will end up an eventual disaster for the U.S. due to the crude and stupid way it is being carried out.

Yes, the Venezuelan military is very imperfect. Corruption and all that. But here we are forgetting what sociologists call THE TERRITORIAL IMPERATIVE. Faced with the prospect of losing the land they inhabit and becoming pariahs, these men will fight, I assure you. Yeah, some traitors and cowards will go AWOL, obviously. But most of them will fight. You may be involved in petty conflicts or stealing from the state or be an unmotivated piece of shit. But when invaders come to turn you into a zombie and take that which you did not know was also yours, you will awake and you will fight back. This is the same reason why Vietnam turned into defeat for the U.S. and the same reason why Irak and Afghanistan are turning out that same way.

You cannot compare Venezuela to Syria or Iraq. Both middle east nations were somewhat taken by surprise elements. Iraq in a conventional invasion war. Syria in an unconventional war. Both of them had military forces completely trained in conventional war. That is not the case with Venezuela. Ever since Chávez they have been expecting this day, which Chávez always told them it would come. They knew it was all going to come down to this day when they would have to fight for their freedom.

All Chávez did with ALBA, UNASUR, PetroCaribe, etc was BUY TIME to put a few things in place, such as

*some Russian weapons here and there.
*More than a couple million AKs all over the country.
*A New Militia force led by exmilitary officers and composed of citizens that have been training for almost a decade.
*Guerrilla warfare tactics as taught by Cuban military.
*Russian military training, including the latest tactics and approaches from Syrian battlefields.
*Weapons to be delivered for Left wing guerrillas in Venezuela AND COLOMBIA.
*A fifth column of several guerrilla cells within Colombia to be activated when Venezuela was invaded.

And that is the huge ghost of this whole story. The one no one is talking about. Invasion of Venezuela will destabilize Colombia almost immediately, which will bring that country down economically as its huge tourist industry takes a direct hit. Colombians will pay a heavy price, as their countries falls back to the 80s and sees its name once again become a symbol for civil war.

I’m telling you: No here one wants this war. Except the gringos. Because they do not care and will simply shoot a photo op claiming victory. And leave.

Oh, and those U.S. navy ships on the Venezuelan coast? Some will go down, baby. Chávez got weapons specific for that. Some will definitely go down.

You think MR. MAGA is ready to face the nation to explain how they lost some of their precious toys along with a few hundred sailors?

A smart, sane planner/adviser would start with the goals they want to accomplish, then talk to the experts, come up with a plan to meet those goals, and at the end of that process arrive at the number of troops to be deployed.

Bolton and Trump are both the sorts of idiots who begin with the number of troops. I’d say they work backwards from there, but they really don’t. They just write a number on a Tweet or a yellow pad and that is that.

The joke is that 5000 troops won’t be nearly enough. They had 120,000 troops plus more mercs in Iraq, and that wasn’t enough until Gen. Betrayus spent a lot of cash bribing the Sunni clans. They’ll end up with a few thousand troops defending their Green Zone or whatever color they use this time, and that’s just for starters to defend a home base and their puppet regime. And wait till they find out just how corrupt their Colombian mercenaries are.

Hmmm, a year and a half is about right for this to completely blow up in Trump’s face. Just in time for the American political conventions. And he still is losing his other fights with Pelosi and Xi at the same time.

You are right. 5000 soldiers is ridiculously low for a successful invasion. And my prediction is that there wont be Colonian soldiers, because Colonia itself will become a target, as well as the 5 million Colonians that live in Venezuela! (People who fleed the violence by the right wing ziomasons that control the Colonia). If Colonians start to kill or be killed by other fellow Latinos, their ziopoliticians will be blamed and stopped. They perfectly know that, so the real plan must be very different.
My opinion is that those 5000 zioldiers + a few thousands of mercenaries is a force of mopup. The military personnel protecting Maduro (400+ Russians + ?Chinese +?Iranians) plus a presumably big and effective stock of Russian, Chinese, Iranian missiles may deny a surprise attack, an aerial one or maritime beachhead by the AZE (AngloZionist Empire). So the AZE may use a non-radioactive high precision weapon from space, like the DEW (Directed Energy Weapons) rays to wipe neighborhoods in California. Another possible weapon that the AZE of evil could use is the kinetic tungsten bars from space, which can reach bunkers. The AZE could use HAARP weather weapons to weaken even more the country.

5000 troops are simply the camel’s nose under the tent flap. Once they are in harm’s way it is easy to get congress and the administration to approve a build-up to see to it they’re not overrun. This is Vietnam 1.0.

The utter brazenness and illegality of this latest attempt to overthrow the legitimate Venezuelan government and plunder the country leaves me at a loss for words. Thanks you Mr. Saker for providing the words that begin to convey the outrage I feel. Your summary and analysis is poignantly bang on and delivered with an intelligence and wit that had me jumping in my skin and laughing out loud at times in the way only truth can accomplish. I want to re-read this and perhaps comment further but for now my respect and salutations.

Very true about the Skripal technique of a completely ridiculous and obvious act, designed to make vassals decide to either show full submission or reveal any anti Empire inclinations. We also saw that with the Malaysian air liner shoot down. It is effectively a test of faith for vassals- like a religuous fanatic self harming, because some fundamentalist leader tells them that God desires it.

One has to understand that most of the wars fought by the US since Jewish power executed JFK have not been fought for some political or national interest. The principle goal of these wars have been the wars themselves. As you stated yourself, it is much easier to destroy than to save. The Anglo/Zionist plan in Syria was never a stable Syria, it was to keep Syria embroiled and destabilized with a mercenary led “insurrection”…and as always to bloat the profits of the MIC. Iraq? Same same. The goal was to destabilize and destroy the Iraqi state. Oil was a secondary issue. This is true as well in Venezuela.

The Jewish neocons are heavily supporting this as part of their longer term goal of swamping all “European” countries with third world immigrants, thereby destabilizing them and making them easier to control and remove them as a threat to Jewish power. The oil resources are secondary. You can tell this by the absurd level of hubris being displayed by the US and the appointment of Abrams as the point man. It seems pretty clear to me that the real goal in Venezuela is to drive millions of Venezuelan refugees north to the US. The ranks of these refugees will be swelled by millions more Latin Americans who will stream to the US border to claim refugee status.

“In his first direct message to the American people, the Venezuelan leader urged them to stop the US government from entangling the nation in a pointless and inherently doomed military adventure.

“If the government of the United States intends to intervene us, they will have a much worse Vietnam than you could imagine.”

The 4-minute video, in Spanish with English subtitles, was posted on Maduro’s official Facebook page on Wednesday, shortly after he accused US President Donald Trump of ordering the Colombian government and mafia to assassinate him, and rejected a European ultimatum to call snap presidential elections within 8 days.”

Despite all the zionazi-gay propaganda to the contrary, enough americans still understand that the Vietnam war was a loss. Probably the only war the zombies think they lost. Good choice by Maduro to refer to that war crime.

The gold deposits in Venuzuala are what the Eest craves…desperately needs….they have a lack of gold to remedy. The US already buys 41% of Venuzualas oil. It is not the oil. It could easily and relatively buy up any amount of it. It is cheap to transport because of its proximity. Its is of a grade which requires different fractionalisation to that of most refinery’s. So the oils marketability is constrained.

It is not the oil.

It is the gold deposits.

The empire lacks gold. The EU lacks gold.

Dissolve the Venuzuelan state and take the gold is the name of the game.

This video will have effect, it is rational and human —I was convinced.
Vietnam represents all that went wrong for the “average ‘merican joe”, the value of earnings, self-worth and societal trust, et al. Maduro did well to use this metaphor . . . whether it is more than just metaphor?
Gold. Oil. Workforce. What does a crushed Venezuela offer the empire that it could not acquire by other, more profitable means? Perhaps the Vietnam tie-in is more closely linked to the pyramid-money scheme than just the jungle democracy entente, whatever that means. The Saker looks for a rapid empire collapse consequented by the double-down rashness and greed, and there isn’t a doubt as to the greed at work here, my question is to what extent does it become desperate — I wonder whether Venezuela has already been brokered by the bidders and carpetbaggers, and if this is the money angle for the empire, in other words servicing the loan shark, rather than some colonial conquest. Is America close to folding her cards?

Hey, its now being said that Venezuela is our back yard, but be careful, if Maderro stays in power, he prolly will default on western backed debt sending a shock wave throughout the banking system. This could be why it is so imperative to install another U.S. backed puppet, everyday it takes a shorter straw to break the camels back.

In one side, if Maduro endures this soft war, they’ll still have to face (chances are) prolong economic sanctions, simply because the US hates him & wants him to go. In this case, it is going to be endless instability & longer conflict for Venezuela. Of course, maybe Russia & China will finally made up their mind, and come to help them, in either economy or military aid, although military seems unlikely, but it will be interesting to observe.

On the other side, if the “Macrobama” truly rises to power, there’s no way, no way he ever had any intention to restructure the economy, or helping the poor! having hit badly by 1.000.000% rocket-inflation, he surely would nicely sit behind the desk, and follow any instructions his master in DC told him to do. Also, he obviously will face hostile uprising by millions of Maduro’s supporters. Again, we came up with possibilities of endless instability and longer conflict in Venezuela.

However, I honestly hope that Venezuela will see the sun shining again after the heavy storm. If Syria survived exhausting 8 years of conflicts, hopefully Venezuela will survive too, and overcome the problem before it breaks into real war / invasion by the empire.

“The Empire delivers an self-evidently unacceptable ultimatum to Venezuela which is self-evidently rejected…”

Well, that looks familiar, but appallingly unboring.

Because it is EXACTLY what the Austro-Hungarian Empire did to Serbia in 1914. Needless to say, Serbia is still intact and viable today, while the Austro-Hungarian Empire lasted just five more years after its act of supreme chutzpah.

The one aspect of cunning these neocons have shown is their clever timing – these contrived events occuring just as Trump is humiliated by his failed shut down, and in need of some desperate gambit to prove he still has any sand.

These sought of games really are their Modus Operandi, so no surprise on them having a stratagem all ready to go.

Syrian population is approximately 30 million. The combined population of Venezuela and Colombia is 80 million. The Syrian war produced a massive refugee flow into Europe. A Venezuelan war will spread to Colombia and wreak havoc in both countries. How many refugees are going to cross Trump’s border to escape the devastation?

I think you are wrong Saker regarding Russias capability and willingness to take on the empire militarilly in Venuzuela.

The time has come. War is on the cards quite definately now between the superpowers in the Middle East. War is on the cards in Eastern Europe. War is on the cards in the Stans. War is on the cards in the South China Sea. War is on the cards on the Korean Penninsula. War is on the cards in the Sea of Japan.

Russia will in my view explain shortly that US, EU and Lima Group countries involved on attacks upon or providing support for attacks upon Venuzuela will be repulsed by Russias military might.

I doubt Russia will get involved much beyond intelligence support. However, has Venezuela purchased Russian container missile systems? https://youtube.com/watch?v=mbUU_9bOcnM
Something like this could sink a USN carrier. Not sure it would change the outcome of a war on Venezuela but it would completely humiliate the US. Russia would get a lot of heat for supplying the weapons through a “private” company. But if Russia is going to allow these weapons to be sold, one day they are going to be used, and it is better that Russia have plausible deniability.

I have relatives in Latin America and my heart goes out to the Venezuelan people.

By the same token, I am an American who loves the American people (not its foreign policy establishment) and I am heartbroken for the American people as well. It is not hard to see where all this is leading.

Good article with common sense. Regarding Russia I agree. Putin has just said that the only think that Russia is interested is the investment they did in Venezuela and they will protect their interest only. Typical Russian statement, similar to the previous statements regarding Syria. In Syria Russia openly declared constantly that as long as their bases and assets are not harmed, they have no intention to intervene in US or Israeli aggression, paving the way for further attacks. A week ago Iranians accused Russia to disable s300 missiles while Israeli jets were bombarding Syria. Also it is known that Russia gave Syrian missile system ID codes to Israel during many bombings (https://eurasiafuture.com/2019/01/01/is-russia-intentionally-enabling-israeli-aggression-and-impunity-against-its-own-regional-balancing-strategy/). Shows the mindset and hypocrisy of the Russian government, especially Putin who is evidently run by a dozen or so oligarch running the entire Russian economy. Sad but true.

The tiny country of Guyana is being used as a puppet state and proxy regime for the UK, USA, Canada and other imperialist countries to wage war against Venezuela.

It’s ironic that the newly elected Guyanese government, ruled by a man of African descent, is being a sellout and kissing the feet of the European imperialists.

Guyana has seemed to have forgotten the 1763 revolution against the Dutch, and the 1823 revolution against the British takeover after the Napoleon wars.

Suriname, Guyana’s brother, is the only wise one to have supported Maduro as President. The other brother, French Guiana, is treated worse than garbage by the French colonist, but I doubt that France will use their overseas colony as a puppet state.

The UK is also building a military base in either Trinidad or Guyana. Make a guess where likely the UK would successfully install a military base as T&T has pleaded neutrality in this anti-Venezuela saga, despite “claims by Venezuela” propaganda.

Exxon is also drilling for oil in Venezuela territory, and accusing Venezuela of making claims to the Essequibo region of Guyana, which is hyperbole.

What is missing in the Saker’s analysts is the Catch-22 of the lack of public support for Imperial Washington. Yes, the neo-cons can away with blatant lies and theft, but only as long as there is no pain to rouse the people out of their apathy. They can overthrow Maduro easily enough with military force but it will take only a hundred body bags of resistance and public opinion in America will move against them quickly; there is no phony-baloney weapons of mass destruction, no two-timing terrorist, and Maduro hardly comes across as much of a bad guy.

The US can’t fight effectively because, with an all-volunteer force, there can’t be an extended war of mass casualties. So we bankrupt ourselves slowly by calling in air-support while the MIC gets richer, but in the long run the imperial project is doomed to failure.

If we stop listening the din of US and Europuppet bluster, threat and bloviation there simply is no coup nor anything like one. There are no powerful forces able to challenge the legitimate government and most areas of the country are quite calm including Caracas.

“That’s funny because according to @sashakots, who today attended such a “opposition” protest, the number of people there don’t exceed double digits…
Ollie Richardson added,”

Donald J. Trump
Verified account

@realDonaldTrump
….Large protests all across Venezuela today against Maduro. The fight for freedom has begun!
– 30 Jan 2019

There is no internal threat and no country is willing or able to wage a war against Venezuela – including the USA.
There is no point in condemning US/ Europuppet verbal diahorrea in their propaganda/media whilst then swallowing “hook line and sinker” the preposterous lies and exaggerations that it spews out.

Yes Venezuela has problems. Which country doesn’t? But it is not facing a coup and as for the 5000 US troops, well they had half a million in Vietnam at one point and spectacularly lost that war too.
The Venezuelans know how to handle this.

Please take note of the vegetation, population and economic activity maps as those are the regions that must be contested and controlled by any invading force hoping to secure Venezuela’s assets. Please pay particular note to the fact that the main population belt corresponds to the scrub and brush belt, not the forested regions where few people dwell. My main point being, this will not be a jungle war. And as one might guess, the economic activity belt overlays the population belt.

Armaments: Syrian warehouses are overflowing with the sophisticated weapons the Outlaw US Empire provided its terrorist proxies. I’m certain Assad will be more than happy to supply them to Maduro–there’s probably close to a billion dollars worth of TOWs alone! Plus they’re light and not too bulky which is perfect for shipment via airplane.

France is 2/3s the area of Venezuela. The US Army needed to use several million troops to invade and wrest France from German control, with the French populace welcoming and greatly aiding the invasion force, not fighting against it tooth and nail. Currently, the US Navy lacks the necessary ships to mount a contested seaborn invasion that would likely suffer massive losses. The depleted condition of the US Air Force would also find the going difficult regardless Saker’s assessment–a massive relocation of planes, personnel and armaments would need to occur well before any actual combat, and where are Colombia’s military airfields? Here, only one close to Venezuela. An invasion using Colombia’s Army? It consists of barely 250K personnel, not nearly enough to conquer its neighbor alone or with the small, token Outlaw US Empire force.

Hopefully, Saker will reply to my comment. We are on the same team after all!

“Venezuela will tell you that destitute Venezuelans are not only running out of the country in large numbers, but they also contribute to destabilize the neighboring states” Saker: Actually the whole Central America, Mexico and parto of SouthAmerica (Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela of course) is in dissarray. It is a process that has been going on for several years now. The current and new president of Mexico wants to put some kinf of order in the country but years of corruption, impunity with different drug cartels running the show has left the country economy out of balance even the oil supply for the common citizen is now scarce. Then, As an example, Honduras, Brazil, Salvador, Guatemala, Colombia, Mexico have some of the highest rates of murder and kidnapping in the whole world. I do not include Venezuela here in this group because as everyone knows know they are in a special situation with the US and lackeys attacking her from every corner. I tend to agree with the following article https://www.voltairenet.org/article204656.html that the US intends to destroy the whole region. Colombia (in the first place) will be send to attack Venezuela this will reactivate the leftist guerrilla there and Colombia itself will end up in civil war this may spread to the whole region. The US/NATO do not care of course they will be proud just to add another region of the world to their path of destruction.

http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/968 The US, CIA, etc have been of course involved in the training, weaponizing of some of the most ruthless, sanguinary of these drug cartels since many years thats how they started seeding chaos in Mexico in the first place which has been spreading southward to Centralamerica. Southamerica has its own problems from before now with the CIA and american military running the show in Colombia, cocain producction has increased 5-10 fold since Escobars death.

Hmm tens of thousands of troops eh? Why? Nothing to see here. A billionaire buys large tracts in patagonia. A holiday camp for Israeli troops? Tens of thousands of them. And the Argentinian authorities are merely curious? Good heavens.

Well, it is of interest that Brazil now has a Zionist President, as well that Argentina has a border with Brazil in these regions. Also there is the Pacific coast up to Columbia as well as the Atlantic route to Guyana or Venezuela. Worth watching.

For Washington, taking Venezuela is essential to buck up the Empire. First we have to understand what the Washington Empire actually is. It provides a framework through the dollar and the financial cartels (I include nearly all sovereign funds, major banks, international organizations and so on) to create a stable platforms for the international ruling elites to function whether they are from the UK or China. Nearly every country in the world does not want this structure to dissolve. The US also offers a strong cultural framework for the international elites bringing the morality of entertainment and narcissistic hedonism to every corner of the world. As discontent now has moved to portions of the middle class in the West the elites are even more occupied with maintaining the now not so new world order.

This is why all major vassals of the USA support imperialism no matter how silly or unsuccessful. The massive use of military force by the Washington regime may not achieve stated objectives but it does destroy societies and massive number of people. This is necessary to show “we mean business” and will slaughter people willy-nilly if Washington does not get its way. In fact, central to the neocon philosophy of governing is to appear to be unpredictable and insane–even if US policy does not make sense it is at least scary. Who knows what Washington might do–start a nuclear war?–well, maybe; conquer France?–well maybe if those yellow vests don’t stop. In short the US is capable of anything because Washington is not answerable to anyone. The American people can have opposite ideas about foreign policy but, since they are children to be manipulated, threatened and bribed with fantasies whether in gaming or porn what they say doesn’t matter at all.

I disagree that the idea of Washington wanting to seize Venezuela “stupid” it’s quite sensible if you are running an Empire. As someone state here–this way the price of oil can drop and quicken the oncoming disasters that still await us.

I agree with your views almost entirely, except your statement about Americans ideas about foreign policy being irrelevant. The folly of Vietnam could have gone on indefinitely if it could have been fought with an all volunteer force. It is not people’s votes that matter as much as their willingness to fight. Even some of the stupidest Americans who will thank a veteran for their service any chance they get will think twice about giving up their own life for the empire.

I would like to add my opinion about the meaning of this brutal aggression against Venezuela (of course, after all the aggression in the Middle east, Africa and the rest of Latin America):

The insoluble problem of our time consists in how to restart capitalism-imperialism – that is, how to start a new cycle of the system without losses for the transnational elite. The neocons seem to believe that, by subjugating Venezuela, we will return to colonialism (when it all began) – this way, they believe that they will be able to sustain (subsidize) the labour force in the advanced economies, as it has always happened, and perhaps make indebted workers pay back their debts. This, however, is a fantasy as the development of the productive forces has already created all the conditions for the overcoming of the present system by a more efficient one, for the benefit of all humanity (exactly as Marx predicted).

If Venezuela does not submit – after total destruction and the death of hundreds of thousands of people (as it has already happened in Syria, Libya, Iraq…) -, then a nuclear war between the western States against Russia and China (the more powerful States that comprise the Axis of Resistance against imperialism) will be considered, with all the destruction it entails.

What we see clearly is a desperate US Empire collapsing in front of our eyes as a result of the collapse of the capitalist-imperialist system.

To avoid nuclear war, Russia and China will have to intervene and negotiate a diplomatic solution to a transition period between capitalism-imperialism and socialism – characterized by central planning in control of the production and distribution of goods (China’s ‘socialism with Chinese characteristics’ closely illustrates what socialism will be about after the transition period, which may last decades)These mechanisms of control should tame/regulate the capitalist-imperialist system to avoid crisis and crashes.

I wonder if Trump is pursuing a “rope-a-dope” strategy against the imperialists; appearing to give them what they want but expecting them to fail. The imperialists have fallen in line behind this half baked venture and when it is incompetently executed and fails it will discredit them further. Meanwhile, Donald Trump is no longer being criticized for withdrawing from Syria or negotiating with North Korea or Afghanistan. I don’t think the U.S. public wants a new war, and if there is a U.S. attack on Venezuela, these politicians will face trouble from voters.

I wasn’t able to access your link for some reason but I know Bolton has been talking about the “troika of tyranny”. Trump is full of hype so you can’t be sure with him what is real and what is posturing. Since Bannon has been busy promoting his politics in Europe and Brazil, there is actual substance to this agenda. I think the question is whether Trump will be hurt politically if the Venezuela coup goes badly. It isn’t obvious to me what will happen, because the anti-Trump people seem to support the coup or at least are quiet.

Congress has not authorized military action against Venezuela. Unlike with Syria, Trump cannot say an attack on Venezuela is authorized because Al Qaeda is present there. I think an actual attack is unlikely but then everything about this affair has been outlandish?

Excellent analysis Saker. I am no fan of the Maduro Govt, but at the same time am staunchly anti imperialist. You’re so right, the UN Charter, International Law, respecting the sovereignty of other countries all completely meaningless. The sheer out in the open, blatant regime change op by the Empire is almost breathtaking. Right there for the entire world to see. And down here in vassal state #1, Australia, the bootlicking bunch of chinless amoeba’s quickly recognised Guaido as Venezuela’s rightful President, despite their continuous vomit about ‘international rules based order’ and ‘democratic norms’ and ‘international values’ all the other monotonal dribble. The Empire is now exposed for all the World to see. At least those who want to see it. I see a very bumpy, perilous journey ahead. This deranged madness just goes on and on.

Mulga Mumblebrain: sorry for my insult to amoebae Mulga, how about maggot infested rats then? Just the sheer level of obliviousness in this country, the sheer – couldn’t give a flying fig….. As long as I got my new car, and overseas holiday in Europe and piss ups at the Pub, and my shopping binge at Westfield. They have absolutely no idea the shit storm fast approaching. Has even one single Australian politician said anything against the blatant thuggery of the Empire against Venezuela? Was that a dumb question? What’s coming is going to be very ugly.

If China and Russia back off and let it be cuz is far away the empire may never fall. They won’t stop to loot and this situation could remain for more than a century.
Is Africa closer to China than Venezuela? Is China backing off after hundreds of billions of investment $

Russia and China will eventually have to go further than 1000km from their borders.
This distance is ridiculously close. Couple months ago Russia was bragging about a nuclear cruise missile that can travel around the world to hit its target.
Is this just to show? Just to turn around defenses?

Attack cost more than defense. Defense!

The empire putting its hand on the PLANET largest oil reserves and are you saying this can be managed by China and Russia.

I’m sorry but the time is now.
At least tell China that its their turn to act.

PS. Colombia do not have jungle fight capacity. That was FARC territory and they did no won there.
I doubt USA has any capacity to stay alive I the jungle.
Brazil on the other side…

It’s time to Maduro do some arrests and end this illegal Fake congress. Just like Lula, he is allowing the opposition, the traitors of their country to have space to act.
Look where Lula is today!

Agree with your comment. I am sorry to suspect that China wont act. To ask Russia to keep doing the “heavy” task maybe is too much to ask since Russia has it own issues with the economy still fragile and the NATO like hyenas surrounding it, so hope for the best but expect the worst.

Nicolas Maduro will have the option of a significant degree of both Russian & Chinese intelligence/military/logistic support & advice in order to anticipate & counter the moves the US makes. My own feeling is that Maduro’s success or failure will depend on how he utilizes this support, it is certainly essential for both Russia & China that Venezuela successfully resist this onslaught. For the US it is of critical importance that they re-establish full control over Venezuela for regional geostrategic reasons, US hegemony has to be enhanced in its so-called “backyard” in order to slow down the erosion of hegemony globally. It is also critical for the US to gain full control over Venezuela’s oil so as to counter the impact of de-Dollarization with a stimulated Petrodollar. The reason why US actions have been so blatant in this respect is not only stupidity, it is quite obvious desperation. The gains the US has made in reversing the Latin American “pink tide” are temporary, they will not last, there will be a counter attack by those forces aspiring toward sovereignty, hence why Venezuela is the first to come under a full frontal attack, this is important for symbolism as well. I have no faith in Maduro at all, Chavez made the same mistake unfortunately that many strong arm idealogues make, they appoint inept subordinates to ensure their own position remains secure. This always blows up in their face when a crisis strikes. When Milosevic was imprisoned in the Hague, UK intel MI6 had his phonecalls monitored, & the warden regularly reported back to them on Milosevic’s communications. Apparently one of the issues that Milosevic repeatedly pointed out in conversation with confidants, was that his mistakes in appointing weak low IQ people around him in key government positions actually cost him the government itself when he was overthrown. Milosevic believed that had he appointed intelligent principled persons of conviction, his government may have survived. In Maduro’s case, its his allies, Russia & China that can help save his government, if he takes their advice & guidance.

“But if the goal is to wreck a country, then it has worked, quite a few times indeed.”

I’d be interested in The Saker making this a thesis for a piece. This thesis already has currency with some. What becomes of most of this analysis about stupid Yankees, military scenarios etc., if the intention – all along – has been the destruction of state structures (Thierry Meyssan’s phrase). What if the intention – all along – has been to keep these destroyed states in a condition of perpetual chaos and to treat their resources as reserves to fuel the Empire.

“According to this map, taken from one of Thomas P. M. Barnett’s power point slides, presented at a conference held at the Pentagon in 2003, every state in the pink zone must be destroyed. This project has nothing to with the struggle between classes at the national level nor with exploiting natural resources. Once they are done with the expanded Middle East, the US strategists are preparing to reduce the North West of Latin America to ruins.”

Also, while on the topic of the destruction of state structures both Europe and the US have recently determined to prevent Syria from rebuilding. At least as far as their making any contributions to rebuilding. The war continues on a financial level. Sanctions policies, basically with the aim of keeping Syria in the destructive mess it now finds itself. Just as is still the case in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya numerous countries in Africa … .

Brad, the deliberate destruction by the Western thug monsters of societies and the murder of millions, plus the relentless economic warfare to keep billions in direst poverty, presages their Final Solution for the ‘Useless Eaters’ Problem. The billions in the poor world serve no purpose in Western teleology. They are surplus to requirements and represent only the threat of revolt, or of ecological destruction, so they must go. The piece-meal genocides, four million in Korea and four million in Indochina, a few million in Indonesia, several million in the Middle East, 30,000 a day from poverty enforced by the ‘Washington Consensus’ etc, just won’t do. I expect bio-warfare, some ‘mysterious disease’ that will mysteriously spare the rich states. Anyone who moans about the culling will be mercifully spared the agony by being nuked.

Great Analysis! . You missed out one element though. A U S invasion of Venezuela, solo or jointly with Columbia has a Ukraine factor. Uncle Schmuel ( like the expanded acronym! 😁) could need to choose between Venezuela and Ukraine. The latter, suspect would fast become a fait accompli situation with CNN/NYT and their ilk dishing out trash Langley propoganda . The ground reality is that NATO can say goodbye to Ukraine and maybe Syria as well . So was Trump’s Syria, retreat all about Venezuela ? Maybe Maria Zakhorova could send Ms Victoria “ EfEu” Nuland a box of Russian cookies laced with sauce !

Entertaining commentary but its off the mark.. the Trump strategy is to get the Venezuelan military to mutiny against Maduro quickly. This betrays a poor understanding of the Chavista power structure, ehich has the military at its heart. Remember, Trump is being ill-advised by a handful of exiled righhtwingers who have convinced him that Maduro is just a hated tin pot dictator who will fall easily with a nudge. This is not going to happen, which takes us to:

Plan B would be to get a civil war brewing. This is a real, horrific possibilty, even liklihood, because both sides are really entrenched. Then the US could easily enforce a “no fly zone” a la Libya, using missiles and bombers to eliminate any advantage that governemnt forces have.

It seems unlikely that Trump would send “boots on the ground” because his Pentagon advisers will warn him about the risks.

The real question is, what will Maduro do about PDVSA. That is going to kill Venezuela, no invasion reqquired. The loss of PDVSA seems too much to bear. The country is already broke and now, Venezuela will be a lost cause, shit outta luck poor. I dont know enough about this issue but from what Ive heard from Venezuelan television, its game over.

India will buy oil for rupees and China will keep buying oil and thats about it. Transport costs to these countries is much higher. PDVSA is now losing 600 000 barrils a day in production that was going to the US. Further, venezuela was getting the chemicals it needs to process this heavy, tar like oil, from the US.

Remember the battle of Sloviansk. Remember the Houthi. A few thousand ex-soviet wire guided missiles available for $1000 a piece made ground armor vulnerable across the country. Manpads do not stop high altitude bombing but make airport landings of special forces difficult. If Abrahms tanks and C130 invade Venezuela then it will obviously be a US armor invasion. US is left with poorly trained poorly motivated foreign mercenaries “training personnel” and ground-based special forces to seize urban environments.If special forces get bogged down in urban environments it mean lots of collateral damage. The traitors hired by USA are likely unwilling to die. If Maduro controls airport with Manpads and confronts rebel tanks with ATGM he will control the ground in the Capital Center . Does the Maduro regime compare to the Houthi? Starvation does not equal rebellion unless Maduro loses control of the distribution of scarce food. Religious extremists , mercenaries, and traitors were used against Gaddafi but its the extremists that did the bleeding and many died removing Gaddafi.The US would need massive protests with protesters heavily armed to remove Maduro. Maduro knows they are coming.

” If Abrahms tanks and C130 invade Venezuela then it will obviously be a US armor invasion. ”
Try to bring in that crap into Caracas !!!! Just try.

Caracas is a mountainous trap !!! The rest of Venezuela is not easy either. American boots on the ground will have a much different experience than in Iraq or Afghanistan. The term “gringo” is not a compliment.

It has been about 2 years that I’ve read and tried to understand the official position coming out of China. Its difficult because of their muted language. But, with all that reading as a background, I believe China has made a move in an op-ed on Global Times – but their visible move is in the broader context. They say very clearly: Nations should explore better system to break US hegemonyhttp://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1137847.shtml

“The strength of US sanctions is rooted in the power and reach of the US economy. The US dollar is used for the international oil and gas trade and a wide part of global trade. This gives the US an exorbitant privilege to sanction countries it opposes.

The US now maintains economic sanctions against dozens of countries including Cuba, Myanmar, Iran, North Korea and Venezuela. US sanctions are imposed when Washington thinks its interests are undermined by those regimes.

The latest sanctions on Venezuela’s state-owned oil company aim to cut off source of foreign currency of Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro’s government and eventually force him to step down. Obviously the US is using sanctions on Venezuela to push forward political transition in Latin American countries.”

And this is pretty clearly stated: “A new mechanism should be devised to thwart such a vicious circle. With the US-EU division now deepening, even the US’ European allies can see the downside of the US manipulation of the world order and have realized the need to help their businesses develop for the sake of their own interests.”

That shows us China’s long view. They’re taking direct aim at hegemony to change the balance of power. They did something like this very successfully with the trade war by taking direct aim at US companies where they could do the greatest damage .. the farming. Now they are sitting back and using that as a big stick .. Oh, you want us to buy more? Sure, we will buy a little – without tying themselves to any real agreement.

For this Trade war, it has been said and accepted that the final agreement will be made by Trump and Xi Jinping themselves. The Chinese call this a new mechanism and they seem happy with this.

I theorize that Venezuela might have been the last straw that broke the camel’s back China side. The US is demanding ‘structural changes’ to the Chinese system of economy which will make them of course “more like the US.” and demand almost civilizational change from China. Of course, then the US wants to exclude China from Latin American trade – like always, quite onesided. Well, like hell with China allow that and they have taken aim with this op-ed is my assessment.

As I see it, China and Russia have one big motive to help Venezuela, even militarily: The USA can’t be allowed to get their hands on the biggest oil fields in the world. I think, that some Russian politicians and generals will think of what would have happen if the German Wehrmacht had conquered the Caucasus with its oil fields. The “Empire” is running on oil, if they have Venezuela, they have it cheap. They can decrease the oil prizes to a degree that ruins Russia and Iran, while still giving US companies big revenues and they can deliver gasoline to their troops all over the world for pennies….. Saker is right when he says, that it isn’t probable, that they can get this project done, but what if…..? As Saker said, the US is in a similar condition as the Soviet Union was. But a few years later Putin emerged from the – as I see it – “deep state” of the Soviet Union. Perhaps the USA don’t have a power structure who is able to do something similar. But would you bet the planet on it? So I hope, this matter isn’t decided by some “economists” in regard to the questions what it might cost. This is a political necessity, a strategical question. And maybe, even a chance to give the empire the last blow without risking a nuclear war…..

The reality is that US oil production has been dropping since 1971. What the media calls oil production in the US is primarily fracking (light oil condensates) from the Permian , Eagle Ford, Bakken and Wolfcamp basins and a couple of other plays. Besides, these basins are is steep decline with the exception of the Permian Basin which is still being ramped up (lack of water is an issue). The reality is that the US proven reserves, including fracking light oil condensate is currently about 39 billion barrels of which less than half is actual oil that can be refined without blending. In comparison, Venezuela’s proven reserves are about 300 billion barrels of conventional oil and tar sands (lighter than Canadian sources).https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-world-s-largest-oil-reserves-by-country.htmlhttp://aheadoftheherd.com/Newsletter/2018/Shale-is-dead-long-live-conventional-oil.pdf

No US fracking outfit has ever made a profit, and none ever will. The junk bonds used to finance the scam are the next sub-prime mortgages type time-bomb set to detonate the next phase of the Imperial meltdown.

Like the analysis but I’m more optimistic about an aggressive military posture by Russia in Venezuela. Bringing a formidable threat to Uncle Spam’s “back yard” would be a means to alleviate NATO pressures along Russia’s western borders and give space for assertiveness for Novorossiya and Serbia. It would send Washington and the Pentagon into disarray.

Certain amount of sarc in this linked article but the dollar does appear to be threatened by the absolute brilliant policies coming out of wash dc with respect to mid-east and now Valenzuela:. I doubt if any author could sit down and write a script which would capture the bumbling incompetentcy of dc:
-swaggering force for good decides who will be pres of V;
-trump calls new pres;
-new pres, unelected, not previous candidate, says need money, gimme the gold, contacts IMF;
-empire diverts revenue of state owned company;
-bolton says we will take the oil, it is good for business;
-bolton has “productive” meeting with oil company execs;
-appointment of abrams (nothing, nothing could top that)

The end of America’s unchallenged global economic dominance has arrived sooner than expected, thanks to the very same Neocons who gave the world the Iraq, Syria and the dirty wars in Latin America. Just as the Vietnam War drove the United States off gold by 1971, its sponsorship and funding of violent regime change wars against Venezuela and Syria – and threatening other countries with sanctions if they do not join this crusade – is now
driving European and other nations to create their alternative financial institutions.

This break has been building for quite some time, and was bound to occur. But who would have thought that Donald Trump would become the catalytic agent? No left-wing party, no socialist, anarchist or foreign nationalist leader anywhere in the world could have achieved what he is doing to break up the American Empire. The Deep State is reacting with shock at how this right-wing real estate grifter has been able to drive other countries to defend themselves by dismantling the U.S.-centered world order. To rub it in, he is using Bush and Reagan-era Neocon arsonists, John Bolton and now Elliott Abrams, to fan the flames in Venezuela. It is almost like a black political comedy. The world of international diplomacy is being turned inside-out. A world where there is no longer even a pretense that we might adhere to international norms, let alone laws or treaties.

Some get their power by crippling those around them and creating chaos (like the Pidgeon on the Chess board) and disfunction. I`m sure you can see it daily in your work place or group of “friends”. That makes them feel in control,and they are at that point.

So with the INF on the way to the grave does the US intend nuclear rearmanent of former Soviet Nuvlear powers. Or is the INF pullout by the US a path to the non recognition of Russia as the true successor of the Soviet UNSC seat.?

As a 90-year-old Canastian, my socio/political digestive system has come under control through age and experience, so my impulse to puke when I read about my country’s condoning wrongs like this is no longer a problem ….. just an eye-watering embarrassment.

I predict that Operation Infinite Retard will be a dismal flop at the box office because global public opinion matters much more than most people realize.

The correct Obamacron axiom to guide your foreign policy should have been: “Don’t do immoral shit~” which is something that the neo schmucks are incapable of perceiving.

I strongly suspect that the US financial markets will be in “financial crisis” mode a la 2008 by the end of 2019 and Uncle Globalist DumbSchmuck can put his head between his legs and kiss his superpower ass goodbye.

I suspect the current rally in the SP500 will crap out a little higher at the 200-day moving average and than MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMore 52 week lows and Uncle Schmuck’s ability to kick the collapse can down the road will finally be over.

Every country has the leadership it deserves and Venezuela is not different. We are dealing here with glaring example of human stupidity ( if you think you can make your entire country dependent on one export product and that the barrel of oil will be forever at $ 130-$140 like it was 5-6 year ago.). Unlike my home country that has Communism brutally imposed from outside by the Bolshevist Soviet Union( albeit with quite a few local, mostly Jewish stooges), the disaster in Venezuela is entirely self-made with no outside occupying force shoving down their throat a vicious ideology. So I have little empathy for Maduro and its ilk . That the US is not there to help the average Venezuelan is different story. They can only help themselves.
I can only laugh at those who think the poor are supporting Maduro. You guys have obviously never lived in brutal dictatorship. The poor will never support the privilege security forces and the privilege political ( one party). They will support whoever promises them a decent income, steady electricity, air conditioning and overall a decent living. If that is the devil itself, they will side with him to get what they are denied at this point by Maduro’s infatuation with socialist economy ideal ( the worst possible); that the US is unlikely to deliver on the promise, is again a different story. For the disparate and thedestitute, everything at this point is matter of perception and everything that the Western powers are promising seems like a better alternative to Chavist economic model which has ruined a once prosperous country.
Having been raised up as child and teenager in an brutal dictatorship in eastern Europe I feel sympathetic towards the Venezuelans that are not part of the Government preferred social circles ( oil workers, administrative apparatus and military which may account for max 20% of the population). I have a painful sense of déjà-vu seeing the impoverished Venezuelans leave the country in droves and with a sense of utter desperation which I once felt as teenager myself . At least they have that option and they do not have to deal with cold winters without electricity and heat like we had to deal with; in my country one would get shot or arrested/ imprisoned for attempting to cross the boarded illegally into the Western world.
Best have the country split and two and see which regime is faring better. Mind you, with open borders to people can move freely from one administration style to the other.

“Maduro’s infatuation with socialist economy ideal” This thing about socialism is for the stupid masses. Who says that Venezuela is socialist or communist ? CNN ? NYT ? 70 – 80 % of the Venezuelan economy is still in private hands unlike your former country where I suppose everything was in goverment hands.(BTW, which country is this one ?)

“that fuels the death-squads.” Speaking of death-squads, Elliot Abrahms, the Trump “envoy” to Venezuela, in the 70-1980 was in charge of the Death squads in Central America. 100 – 200000 people (mainly indigenous population) dissapeared/were killed under his supervision, particularly in Guatemala, who was under the dictartorship of Gral, Rios Monnt.

Great analysis. Personally I believe that Abrams was sent to Venezuela to spread enough disinformation to get the people to turn against the Maduro government in some sort of color revolution and that the US will fuel this protest until people are ready to accept Guaido as new president. He will then privatize Venezuelan assets, most notably the oil and the US will undercut both Russian and Chinese contracts to eradicate their influence and presence in Venezuela. Trump is still full of rancor because Russia outdid him in Syria so in revenge he will want to outdo both Russia and China in order to cause as large losses to both of them. See Lybia and other African countries where the US saves no effort to destroy Chinese investment. This is after all a scheme to permanently solidify the petrodollar as much as territorial hegemony.

I am in agreement with everything the Saker is saying. I will add what Madame Zakharova is saying.
If the US is destroying the Venezuela, they will trigger an emmigration tsunami that will generate huge problem to Mexico and the US.
In addition huge pollution of the mexican gulf could be expected if the Venezuela let its oil leaking in the gulf by a million barrils per day.

A great article as usual Saker, but let’s see how things develop. Trump demanded a quick election to which Maduro refuted, but now, this week, he has announced elections.
Have you ever considered that Abrams is being set up, Bolton likewise? You know, of course, that military trials are well under way at Guantanamo and that Mattis is running them. There was a report with pics of a prison ship heading out to sea to Guantanamo. Many Military Police units now on duty there missed on Xmas and New Year with family. Many lesser Deep State employed that were once in the lime light have fallen off the radar and gone, as if they’ve gone on secret holidays.
What does Sun Tzu say about enemies? He said,”Keep them close.”
Remember how Trump met with Xi at Maralago, and that he installed a new very special communications room within Airforce One.
What did he call Kim? “Fat boy”.
And then there is the SES and who are they? How is it that they can never be dismissed?
Check these out:
1. What’s Happening to Trump? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaYzx4Dpv3U
2. Trump Has Zero Control https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rt06j-HmOrg

As far as the vermin presstitutes of the Western ‘Free Press’ are concerned, elections that do not return Uncle Satan’s preferred stooge NEVER happened. Down the old ‘Memory Hole’ with all Chavez’s victories, that of Hamas, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Ahmadinejad, Putin in Russia etc, etc, etc.

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